Kalen DeBoer denies Miami-Ohio accusation Alabama 'illegally recruited' transfer kicker Graham Nicholson

Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer has denied the accusation that Alabama illegally recruited transfer kicked Graham Nicholson from Miami-Ohio.

Miami-Ohio head coach Chuck Martin recently made the claim that Alabama illegally recruited Graham Nicholson this offseason by tampering with him. In that accusation, he was blunt, saying that Alabama “stole” him from the RedHawks.

“I don’t know anything about that — that comment,” Kalen DeBoer said. “Yeah, he entered the portal and we reached out to him. So, that’s how it goes, right? We did everything that we were supposed to.”

Nicholson spent three seasons at Miami. In the process, he became the most successful kicker the program has ever seen. He made 60 of his 71 field-goal attempts at a rate 84.5 percent. He also made 97 of 104 extra points, which is 93.3 percent. He also made 27 field goals, missing just one all year last season, which helped him to win the Lou Groza Award.

That success rate is rare among college kickers and is part of why he was such a popular specialist in the portal.

Nicholson ended up transferring in the spring and announced his commitment to Alabama in April. Now, he’s a preseason All-SEC and All-American selection. That late transfer of a dominant kicker did end up putting Miami in a difficult position to try and replace him. Certainly, Chuck Martin was frustrated by what happened.

“We didn’t lose him. He’s at Alabama. We know exactly where he’s at. Again, you media people – it’s all pretend. Like, no. Alabama stole our kicker. They illegally recruited our kicker and stole him from us. That’s a fact. We act like it’s not – we live in this la la world like, hey, let’s not talk reality,” Martin said.

“I don’t know why. Everybody knows what’s going on. So, yeah, Alabama stole our kicker. A couple of other schools tried to steal him.”

Chuck Martin was direct in his initial accusations. Those are serious allegations in a sport that is still trying to figure out how to handle things like NIL and the Transfer Portal era. At the same time, they’re just accusations from one coach to another, and, for now, Kalen DeBoer says that Alabama went about things the way they were supposed to.

Regardless, the end result is that DeBoer and Alabama will go into the 2024 season with a kicker that they trust while Nicholson will get to compete in the SEC. Martin and Miami-Ohio, meanwhile, will need to turn to a new kicker in 2024.